Böcker av Odie Hawkins

The "e;Ghetto Sketches"e; was written in 1962, published in 1972. The ghettos in Chicago (North, South, Westside) provided the foundation for the novel. It is an impressionistic study of Washburne Avenue, a street on the Westside/ghetto in Chicago, filled with authentic people. As you read these pages, keep in mind, The "e;Sketches"e; happened in a time frame when there were few community programs to help people with drug issues, alcohol addiction, racism. We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go, as indicated in this "e;Ghetto Sketches, 2021"e;.

The deeply personal story of Odie Hawkins's journey, from ';the poorest of the poor' childhood in Chicago to Hollywood screenwriterand the people who deeply mattered. A tough, touching autobiography.

Odie Hawkins utilizes the same thrust, power, and creativity that made Ghetto Sketches his first bestseller. He has moved the focus from Chicago to Los Angeles; and once again, he has populated his stories with unforgettable charactersthe telephone freak, the tenants of Mrs. Solomon's apartment building, and a few surrealistic types. The Secret Music we all hear is echoed within these stories...

Portrait of Simone is the poignant story of a young soldier stationed in the Deep South, in the recent past, and his romance with a woman nearly twice his age. Simone is mysterious, alluring, charming, complex. The author brings us the story of true love, love that grows deeper with the passage of time, and pays tribute to the woman known as Simone.

Midnight offers us a sensitive view inside the soul of a young African American gangster who is influenced by an older man, a convict, to look into his African side. ';You may not be what they've told you that you are, over here. When you check out where we came from.'

An enchanting intro to a collection of unforgettable characters. Bobo, Burks, Leo (sometimes, when into imaginative self-hatred, alias Tony De Medrow), Billy Woods, Herb Cross, Bruce, Mooney, Johnny Fox, Bernard Kelly, and a few others who lived in the same neighborhood and hung out on the same corners. Some of the less informed thought we were a ';gang' because we spent a lot of time together, but that was the result of them being unable to penetrate the esoteric haze surrounding our relationships. There were times, to be honest, when we didn't know what was happening either.

In the postWatts Rebellion 1970s, Chester L. Simmons takes up the study of martial artsHapkido and Tae Kwon Do. Author Odie Hawkins, using his special blend of wry humor, incisiveness, and sensitivity, takes alter ego Simmons through that experience, as well as a series of misadventures writing movie and television scripts for Hollyweird studios.

Let Chester take you on a journey through Spain in his search to find himselfand write about it. He hooks up with ';El Encanto', a star-crossed matador. Then back to the States, where he meets and marries the love of his life. A honeymoon in West Africa leaves them yearning for a place they've never known, but feel is their home...

Chester L. Simmons, nicknamed ';The Great Lawd Buddha' by his hip constituents because of his almond shaped eyes and his generous tummy, is one of those delightfully free spirits that life gives the world now and then. With his storytelling he sometimes fuses reality and creativity into a seamless possibility; or seamless possibilities. He has been known to bend the truth, if the truth was not creating the right kind of life-vibe for him.

Henrik Malan was the South African secret agent who devised the plan to have the Black American ghettos destroy themselves by supplying them with a cheap but highly addictive drug known on the streets as ';Ghetto Blaster.'

There was no sharper con man on the streets of Chicago than Elijah Brookes. Women were his preferred preybut no mark and no bankroll was safe when Elijah was on the prowl. Cool, beautiful Toni warned him, ';Elijah, brothers be playin' games so hard sometimes they don't know when to stop. You know what I'm sayin'?' Elijah Brookes had to learn the ultimate lesson the hard way. So many games to be played, so little time.

Monday evening comn' downthe dreariest day of the week anywhere, but especially in the ghettos (yea, y'all, they still there) where people have taken their hangovers and other symptoms of a fast weekend to their individual plantations around town (if they're lucky enough to have one) return to their shacks for four/five more days of clock punching and locksteppin' before the Eagle flies. Then was then and now is now. What's the difference?

Valonga Price takes a three-year sabbatical from the grime of owning her own company to try to discover her true self. Armed with questions that have been whirling around in her head, she travels to places like Brazil, San Salvador, Bahia, Nigeria, Cuba, and Japan.

Chicago, the center of America's heartland, from its founding in the late 1700s by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a French-educated black man, to the modern day Gypsies who live on Maxwell Street. It's a city steeped in Black History. This is the story of a city where a unique African American history has grown, a center for the emergence of jazz, blues, dance, art, and the DuSable Museum of African American History.

An enchanting intro to a collection of unforgettable charactersElizabeth, ';Queen of the Projects'; the girl ';Billie' who sings like Lady Day; young Randolph who, to his family's embarrassment, grows a second head for a while; Dean Dale Jackson, talented writer, sculptor, auto mechanic, and dedicated to the underbelly of a bottle; the Vernon family upwardly mobile but required by a will to grow cotton in their suburban backyard; and Marlene and James, who find happiness in an unexpected way, in marriage.